The End

With just a few days before I leave for Iceland, I figured it was time to finish sharing my SUMMER trip to Scotland/England.  Where I last left off, we packed up and left Scotland behind.  But the trip wasn't quite over.  We boarded the train in Edinburgh and headed south to the Lake District of England (Cumbria), Bowness-on-Windermere to be exact.  We rented a little cottage for our time there, and it was so cute.

After being in a hotel room for the week, it was nice to have some room to spread out AND a washer and dryer to freshen our clothes.  

We arrived late afternoon and spent the evening just wandering around our new town, trying to get our bearings.  Windermere is a more well-known and populated area which was just north of us.  Bowness is a bit smaller and sits right on the lake of Windermere.  

Bowness-on-Windermere was exactly how you'd expect a little English village to be.  Quaint little shops lined narrow streets, flowers adorned most of the windows and walkways, and the architecture was all very "English". 

We had been watching the weather reports for a few days about our time in England.  The forecast looked like the ones we had seen in Scotland.  Rain showers predicted each day.  However, while in Scotland the rain was mostly during times we weren't out sight seeing, we weren't quite so lucky in England.  The day we arrived it was partly cloudy, but that was the last time we'd see the sun on our trip.  We didn't have a car because we had planned on taking advantages of the many walks and hikes the district offers, so that threw a little wrench in our plans when we woke up on day 2 to pouring rain.  

After a little research (and a lot of grumbling about the rain), we had our plan.  We boarded the bus  which stopped at the end of our street and took it to the main bus station in Windermere where we bought an all day ticket.  From there we headed northwest to Keswick to visit the Derwent Pencil Museum.  Now, most people giggle when I share this story, but I have to tell you it was FASCINATING.  What started out as the Cumberland Pencil Company in the 1800s is now the Derwent Cumberland Pencil Company who makes school and art pencils.  We use Ticonderoga pencils at school, but in the art world Derwent pencils are very well known and of very good quality.  I have a few sets of my own, both colored and water color versions.  It was fun to see how they were originally made and how they are made now.  Their history is also very interesting as they have played roles in many of the historical events that have taken place over the last two centuries, including helping the Royal Air Force in World War II by making secret map and compass pencils.  It has to be in my top 5 museum experiences.  

The James Bond of Pencils

There were numerous commemorative pencil sets on the display which were just beautiful.

This series of pencils was used primarily in schools as a reward system.  Students could earn them and wanted to collect the different colors.

 The largest colored pencil in the world!

 William and Kate commemorative set

 A portrait commissioned by Derwent to commemorate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.  Only Derwent pencils were used.

 At the end of the exhibits were a few tables set up with pencils, watercolor pencils, and art paper in case one was inspired after their visit.  We were!

 The actual factory has since moved to another town, but this is what remains of the one that was on site.

  It was midday by the time we traveled to and finished our visit.  We hopped back on the bus and headed back south, stopping in Ambleside on the way.  Ambleside sits across Lake Windermere from where we were staying.  Another cute little English village.  So charming!

 One thing that was kind of disappointing about our time in Cumbria (other than the rain) was that since it was still June, the summer tourism season in the area had not hit full speed.  That was a good thing in that the crowds (and kids) were minimal, but that also meant the summer hours weren't on yet.  Most shops and museums closed at 5.  We didn't get to Ambleside until around 4 so only had a bit of time to explore before the town shut down.  And when we got back to Bowness it was almost 7.  Other than pubs/restaurants, everything was closed for the night.  So after returning to Bowness, we wrapped up our first full day at a fun pub.

 I had one of my favorite meals of the trip there.  It was a steak and ale "pie" with all the trimmings.  Delish!

We walked our waterlogged selves back home after the pub, watched a movie, and headed to bed.  Even though a lot of it was spent on a bus, our first full day was busy.